Reverie

It usually took me about ten minutes to reach the office after leaving Bauhaus Coffee Shop a few blocks down, and today had been no exception. Although there was something nagging at the back of my head that I felt like I had forgotten, I tried to push it away as I got back to work as normal, amongst the petrified aura that hovered about the room from my colleagues. Simon had been in all day.

"Hey, uhm, Sephy?"

I clicked my mouse a couple more times, eyes staring intently at the photographs on the monitor in front of me before I broke the trance. "Yeah?" I asked distractedly as I rotated my body around slightly on my chair. "Oh, what's up Gavin?" I asked with a smile, as my eyes met with the figure of the boy in his late teens.

His gaze was strong as it met with mine, but held an air of timidness in them that you know he was trying to hide beneath his fringe. "Could you... tell me where reprographics is?" he questioned in a slightly hushed tone as he leaned forward, throwing a glance around the other people in the room who were diligently typing and clicking away at their computers. "I- I've never been there before, and Katie's..." he trailed off, standing back to his full height and rubbing the back of his neck gingerly.

I chuckled softly and shook my head. "Stressed?" I responded flatly. "Sure, I'll take you down there," I replied, turning back to my computer to save the page I was working on, before locking the screen out of habit. I swivelled back and stood up, being met with a thankful smile from Gavin as I lead the way out of the heated room and out into the glass-walled corridor.

"It's just downstairs," I explained as we walked towards the staircase, noting Gav trailing behind me as if he was nervous as to walk too close. "Kate getting you to check some of the final prints?" I added, trying to start a casual conversation with him.

"Not exactly," he said slowly. I glanced over my shoulder to see his eyebrows knitted together in thought. "I think she just wants me out of her hair."

I frowned at him sympathetically, a pang of genuine guilt in my chest. He had been working his heart out in this place for the couple of weeks, and I knew that first hand from being his mentor, of sorts. Somehow the job always came down to me from Kate to watch out for the interns. Most of the other guys in our department regarded themselves as 'manly' men, and they weren't big on the empathy card.

"Now I'm sure that's not true. It's probably just because the boss is around today," I suggested with a shrug as we reached the floor below the main offices. "She hates everyone on days like these. You're unlucky, really, he only turns up every six months or so."

I saw him nod as he now walked beside me in the wider corridor, eyes studying his surroundings. "I think everyone's feeling it," he said lightly.

I laughed softly and smiled at him. "Yeah, they do that," I supplied. "I'll be surprised if we get the issue finished this evening," I added thoughtfully.

"Haven't you done all of your pages, though?" he asked, glancing at me. "I saw them in the files."

"Yeah, I have. Si doesn't phase me as much as he probably should. To be honest, I don't know what the fuss is about. I do a good job every day... and today is no exception."

Gavin smiled at me. "Nice philosophy," he commented, stopping as I stood outside a white door with a glass pane at the top.

"Thank you," I said curtly, before pushing the door open and flicking the light switch on. The bulb blinked a few times, before illuminating the range of various printing and scanning equipment in the room. "Here you go, knock yourself out," I added, smiling at Gavin as he wandered past me and into the room.

"Thanks, Sephy," he said, turning to the nearest copier and looking down at the control panel thoughtfully. I watched him curiously as he started punching buttons on the machine, his eyebrows shooting up as a piece of paper ejected itself.

"You know how to work those things, kiddo?" I asked with a smile as I lent against the door frame, making him turn to me with a fittingly childish, defiant look in his eyes.

"Of course, what do you take me for?" he scoffed playfully.

I shook my head slowly and smiled. "You're here until the end of the month, right?" I asked out of curiosity, thinking over how he would be quite a loss to my daily routine. Gav was an eighteen year old boy through and through, so he was never short of a few jokes or some other form of amusement.

"Right," he confirmed. "I've enjoyed it here though, got some good experience to write about. You're a great teacher by the way."

"Well aren't you a charmer," I teased, making him smile back at me as I stood up straight again. "Alright, well I'll leave you to your... printing," I said lightly, giving him a small wave as I started to reverse out of the door.

He rose his hand up in response, before his eyes turned back to the copier. "Later, Sephy," he replied in a monotone, his attention firmly fixed on the machine beside him.

I exited the room with a content smile on my lips as I headed back towards the offices on the floor above. Quite honestly, it was moments like that which reminded me just how much I loved my job. I had the opportunity to work with some of the nicest people I had ever met. I was positive I could have been landed with a much worse bunch of fellow employees.

There was something else, too, in Gavin's boyish smile and purposely messed up hair, that made my heart swell just slightly. I had thrown my childhood behind me at his age, and I could see he still had so much life left inside him. I honestly hoped all the best for him; he was a real good kid.

"Oh, Persephone!" Simon said, breaking me from my thoughts as he touched my arm lightly. I looked up at him as my steps stopped abruptly, almost leaving me stumbling. I managed to catch myself instead, and turned to look him square in the eyes. I hadn't even noticed anyone else in the hall other than myself, let alone my boss walking straight past me.

"Yeah, Simon?" I asked lightly, seeing his eyes narrow ever so slightly at my casual tone. I rolled my eyes and folded my arms loosely over my chest as he watched me for a moment with his gaze trying to imitate an authoritative, or intimidating expression. It wasn't doing much use in my books.

"Could you give these to Kate, for me?" He asked finally, holding a few sheets of paper in my direction. I glanced down at them for a moment, before taking them from him and inspecting them a little more closely at the hundreds of words scattered across the page.

"And this is...?"

He snorted. "I didn't ask you to interrogate it, Jones, I asked you to deliver it," he said rather snidely, making me purse my lips tightly to save myself from snapping back. After Brenda, I really wasn't in the mood to be talked down to this afternoon.

"Right," I muttered instead, turning on my heels and smoothly walking away from the Simon without a second thought, hopefully leaving him with a slightly stunned expression in my absence. I had no intention of turning back to look.

I continued on my way back upstairs to the offices, flicking through the sheets of paper that were stapled at the corner. Even scan reading through the multitude of black printed letters wasn't achieving anything. From what I could make out it was far more to do with the business side of the company, than the side I knew. It was all facts and figures that went straight over my head.

I shook my head to myself getting lost in thought as I bypassed my usual spot in the office and kept travelling past the other desks, smiling to a few of my colleagues who waved over at me. I leaned heavily on the glass panelled door at the far end of the room, not even bothering to knock before entering the traditionally foreboding manager’s room.

Katie gaze shot up from her desk as I walked in, her rigid posture breaking to relief at the sight of me. "Oh God, I thought Si had forgotten something," she sighed, slouching back in her chair and placing a hand to her forehead. "I'm sick to my back teeth of him."

I smiled to myself as I walked across to her large table, that for once was pretty tidy. You usually wouldn't be able to see the phone or pencil tidy's for love nor money beneath the mass of paperwork Katie had never been great at keeping organised.

"Don't get excited just yet," I replied with a little regret in my tone, handing across the papers. "How's the magazine holding up?"

I didn't get a reply as Katie placed the papers on the desk in front of her, towering over them as she rested her head in her hands on the table top, reading diligently. She cursed under her breath before pushing the papers away from her in frustration, throwing herself back into her chair with her arms folded across her chest.

"Oh well isn't that fucking brilliant," she growled lowly, scowling at the sheets now pushed back on her desk. I slowly sat down on the chair opposite, watching my friend in apprehension. Her hair was wildly out of place where she had been running her hands through it so much. Apparently, she was having a pretty bad day.

"Care to run it by me?" I tested, not knowing whether she'd answer me. There was always the close friend and colleague boundary between us. It was hard when to know what too much information was.

Katie started shaking her head as she rested her elbows back on the table. "It's not important," she sighed, resting her chin in her palms. "It's fine, I reckon we'll be ready to be go to print within the hour," she added, finally addressing my original question.

"So no late night shift?" I asked lightly, smiling knowingly at my friend.

"I hope not, I need a bubble bath and a stiff drink after today, and I'm not willing to wait," she countered with an equally warm smile. "You want me to drop you home today, or you going to walk?"

I thought about it for a minute. "It's a wonderful day out, but I'd appreciate the lift," I replied honestly, having not really had a chance to talk to my friend today and catch up on life. She had been away seeing her parents over the weekend, so we hadn't spoken or met up like usual.

"Sure thing, just sit tight until the slow pokes get their end sorted and we'll head out," she said lightly. "You planning on driving yourself anytime soon?" she added with a lopsided grin.

I smiled back at the all too familiar question. My parents had bugged me to learn to drive from the moment I was old enough, and now that was down to Toby and Katie to complain about when they had to run me around. Though I never imposed; public transport and my own two feet seemed suitable enough to get me around, I wasn't quite sure what the hype was about cars.

"When I'm 30, I told you before," I answered with a smile, getting to my feet and adjusting my jacket. "Or maybe 40, or even 50. Whenever I get sick of walking I guess," I added with a shrug, Katie grinning at me predictably.

"Okay, Hiker. You do that. Rendezvous at six?"

I nodded curtly. "I'll be at my desk, as always," I chirped, spinning on my toes and walking from the room.

When I reemerged in the main office suite, I was met by three concerned expressions, which instantly made me stop in my tracks. My eyes scanned the room for what I assumed would be Simon hovering about somewhere, hurling abuse at Gavin, knowing the poor boys luck, but the room seemed exactly the same as when I had entered it; slightly stuffy, very messy and always terribly arranged.

"What?" I asked blankly, as my male colleagues all seemed to be burning holes through me. My eyes dropped to my appearance, not knowing if it was something to do with me, but I found nothing out of place. "Seriously, guys, you're scaring me."

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Dan piped up suddenly, my eyes drawn to the dark-haired and stubbled chin man in the corner, that had made Katie swoon when he was first hired. I was quite sure that was how he got his job in the first place, anyway.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Trouble? Why would you think that?"

"Those papers, and Durham. He had this cocky arrogance about him," Dan continued.

"He always does."

"More than usual," he returned. "And some of the things he was saying, it sounded like he was hinting at... well, something, you know?"

I thought about it as I walked back to my desk, sitting down more heavily on the chair than I intended and making my body bounce slightly. I placed my elbow on the table top, chin in my palm, as I re-ran today’s events. Simon's early arrival, the 'discussion' with Katie, the papers, his lack of snide comments while I was still in the room, Gavin's genuine expression of sadness when Katie kicked him out.

As it dawned on me, a shiver ran down my spine, sending goose bumps along my arms. It made sense, everything seemed to fit. I hadn't noticed it because he knew I would notice it, and tried to keep all the signs to a minimum when I was around. Either way, Katie was definitely hiding something - whether it was the end of us or another problem I wasn't sure.

"I don't know," I replied honestly, glancing at my worried co-workers. "I'm sorry, I've got no more information than you guys. It's a little worrying, though," I admitted, chewing on my lip as I turned back to my computer, typing in my password and immediately being attacked by an unread email.

I heard the rest of my colleagues chatter lowly to each other after a brief moment of silence, though the words missed my ears as I continued to think to myself and open my inbox. The message was from Katie, and included an attachment of all the magazine so far. She wanted me to fill in the blanks.

I sighed inwardly and glanced up to the others, who were obviously none the wiser that their work wasn't up to scratch. I tried to push the concerns as far back in my head as possible as I began working, but it was much easier said than done. This team had made this magazine for years, and never before had it been an issue that we were a little on the sloppy side. Sure, there were a lot of problems I usually had to cover up, but then wouldn't the solution be to hire someone who done the double checking instead? Unless of course we didn't have the money to do that, we weren't exactly a high-flying company...

As my thoughts ran and my fingers clicked and tapped away, the hour flew by in no time. I sighed in relief as I sat back from the finished product, sending all the pages back through to Katie, with five minutes to spare before the clock on my screen hit six. It was less than a minute later that she stormed from her office, a huge smile on her face and her jacket and bag slung over her shoulder.

"Great work today, guys! Keep it up, it all starts again tomorrow!" she called out as she bounced down the narrow walk way between desks towards mine at the end. Her expression dropped for a split second as she mouthed 'thank you' to me, before her smile claimed her lips again and she turned back. "C'mon, everyone out, I've got a hot date with a bottle of wine!"

Chuckles hovered about the room as we all collected up our things and switched anything vaguely electronic off. Gavin, too, who had previously been swinging on a chair in the corner out of boredom, jumped to his feet and grabbed his bag, swinging it onto his back and marching over to where I was standing in one fluid movement.

"See you tomorrow, Sephy, Kate," he said with a smile, giving us a salute before turning back to the rest of the guys. "Later boyos!" he called, getting some jeers and laughs in reply, though all accompanied by a friendly wave.

I watched with a smile as he bounced from the room, eventually followed by the other three, until there was just Katie and I left. We shared a glance before making our own exit, Kate switching the lights off and locking up before we headed down the hall, where the excited hoots of our coworkers echoed about the walls from the floor below. They really were childish at times, but it made moments like this all the more enjoyable. We had gone to print for another week; what wasn't there to be happy about?

"You okay?" Katie asked, breaking my thoughts I hadn't realised I was lost in as I turned to her.

A fake smile claimed my lips. "I'm fine," I replied too brightly, immediately making her frown. "I'm not sure," I added honestly, not seeing a reason to lie. "Kate, if I asked you something, would you be honest with me?"

She looked at me oddly as we walked down the stairs, making our way towards the bottom floor of the building. "Honest? Well, I'd like to say yes but it depends, you know that," she replied, holding the door open for me as we continued our march lower.

"I thought so," I responded downheartedly, starting to pluck at my messenger bag strap as I looked down. My attention rose again, however, as we reached the ground floor, and the soft evening sunset rays shone through the glass door at the end of the hall. It made me smile, if ever so lightly.

"Hey, Katie," I started again, determined to at least get the idea out there. She turned to me as we walked into the warm afternoon light, circling the building to reach the car park at the back. "Are we, okay? The magazine, I mean. Simon isn't... dropping us, is he?"

She didn't respond immediately, and her expression remained blank. That was enough an answer without words. "We're doing okay," she replied shortly. "Simon's not dropping us, he just wants us to pick it up a little. It's nothing major, we can do it," she said with a smile, though I frowned in return, nodding none the less.

We remained silent until we reached the car park, at which point Kate sighed heavily and swung an arm across my shoulder. "Tomorrow night, you, me, and the first pub we see. Deal?"

I chuckled lightly, leaning into my friend. "Deal," I replied, appreciating her simultaneous change of subject and addressing of the current one. We might be in trouble, but at least we'd stick together. That's what we had always done since college, and what we always would do until the end. That was, after all, what friends were for.